Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

Kenneth M. Roemer. "Native American Oral Narratives: Context and Continuity." In Smoothing the Ground: Essays on Native American Oral Literature. Ed. Brian Swann. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 39-54.

Concentrates on establishing a context for American Indian oral narratives through discussion of genre distinctions (creation stories, emergence narratives, migration tales, trickster stories, hero tales, accounts of journeys to other worlds, etc.), tribal differentiations, language and style, and types of repetition. Emphasizes the variety and vitality of such narratives, as well as their ability "to adapt creatively to the present" (52).
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